Between ten and fifteen percent of all Dalits in India are Christians. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of all Christians in India are Dalits. This is the first attempt to write their history and its set within the context of the modern Dalit movement. After a brief discussion of the origins of caste and untouchability, Webster traces this history from the late nineteenth century up to 1990. He sees the Dalit movement and Dalit Christian history passing through three stages during that period. The first was characterized by mass conversion, especially to Christianity. The second was the politics of numbers during the 1920s and 1930s when B R Ambedkar was the central figure. The third is the present post-interdependence stage of compensatory discrimination during which Dalits Christians are coming into their own as a distinct entity within the Christian Church and Indian Society at large. The book concludes with a chapter on the history of Christian theological reflection vis-a-vis the Dalits.
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